Getting Back to Normal
Returning home after any wedding — destination or no — is sometimes a bit of a letdown. You may have spent a year or more planning the perfect wedding. You also may have spent your entire childhood, teen years, college days, and adulthood to this point dreaming of the day you would become the bride of the perfect man. All of that is behind you now. It's natural for you to feel as though something major has been left behind, because it has. It's important, though, for you to be able to focus on the future instead of living in the past.
What About Me?
Here's one thing that a lot of brides have trouble dealing with after the wedding: Life goes on. Someone else is engaged now, and it's her time to be in the spotlight. And even if none of your friends or family members are in the midst of planning their own weddings, you only get to have excessive amounts of attention focused on you for so long. This ends shortly after you return, when you're supposed to settle into life as a happy newlywed — a life in which the only attention you need is from your husband.
E~Alert
Accept this natural progression from bride to married woman. Trying to fight it and keep everyone's attention on yourself is something that others will most likely start to find irritating — sooner rather than later.
Other people are very forgiving when it comes to the bride who's planning a wedding. They're quick to say, “Well, she's self-absorbed these days, but that will end after the ceremony.” When that kind of “Me! Me! Me!” attitude continues for months after the day you've said “I do,” you can be fairly sure that someone is going to call you out on it. Or, worse, they'll just stop calling you at all.
Moving On
Letting go of the bride persona can be tough, but it has to be done if you're to move on with your life and not dwell on the fact that once upon a time, you planned the world's greatest wedding. If you suspect that you're going to have some trouble in this area, start looking beyond the end of your own nose. A lot has gone on since the day you got the engagement ring and left the real world behind. Take a friend to lunch and make an effort to talk about her life, or take the initiative and call your mom just to see how she's doing.
As easy as it is to get wrapped up in other people catering to you, it's just as easy to find your way back to normal life once again.
